Photography lesson: Mastering the rule of thirds technique

If you’ve been playing along with photo-a-day for a little while now, you’ll know that each month I share a photography technique as a prompt. It gives us all a chance to grow, stretch and explore a little more with our photos. Some are harder than others, and some are ones that I use all the time. Some I’d never used at all {macro, I’m looking at you!}. Today it’s one of my favourites, the rule of thirds.

Once you use this a few times, it will probably change the way you compose a photo. It can seriously make or break a good photo, and I’m so excited to be sharing about it. First let me tell you a little more about it. What is the rule of thirds?

The rule of thirds is a “rule of thumb” or guideline which applies to the process of composing visual images such as designs, films, paintings, and photographs. The guideline proposes that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections.

What was that noise? Did I just hear your brain explode? Don’t worry, I’m going to explain this to you like you’re a 6 year old who has just had too much red cordial at a birthday party. We’ll get there.

Let’s start simple

Let’s start with a subject matter that doesn’t move. So let’s pack away the kids and animals for a moment and just ease our way into it. Let’s start with a skyline.

As you can see below, the photo is basically broken into 9 equal parts. If you’re using an iPhone {not sure if this is available on other smart phones} you’ll see this grid when you’re taking a photo using the phone camera. The rule of thirds ideal is that you’d place anything of interest {i.e. your subject matter} at any of the intersections of the grid {where two lines meet} or along/on any of the lines.

Here I’ve placed the skyline on the bottom line of the grid. If I’d placed the skyline right in the middle it would have had a different visual effect.

If your camera or phone doesn’t have the grid as you’re taking a photo, just imagine it. Move the subject matter to one of the thirds of the frame. Take a few photos so that you can decide afterwards which works best. Also, if you’re using an editing App like Camera+ you can crop the photo later and figure out the best rule of thirds then.

And now, let’s get a little more complicated. But not much.

Now I’ve thrown a small child into the mix. Dangerous. Well, not really, but not as simple as a skyline. I’ve placed Lacey where two of the rule of third lines meet.

Note: I didn’t stress over the placement of her when taking the photo. I kept her roughly to the left-hand side, but then cropped it to how I wanted afterwards. We have a little bit of flexibility with smartphones and editing programs.

The point of interest of your photo should be what you place in that rule of thirds area, whichever you choose. It could be a person’s eyes, a tree in a landscape, a building, a person, an animal… whatever it is that you’re shooting.

Lastly, abiding by the rule of thirds doesn’t mean that it’s the only way to take a photo. This is just a very traditional technique used in photography and art, and if you break the rules you can still end up with a stunning photo.

If you’re still not sure if you understand this technique, I wrote a more detailed post a while ago that you might like to read. Check it out here.